Stargate Atlantis: The Return
by Narek
Summary: Just when you thought that all the Ancients were gone . . .


Episode One (Version 1)

Episode One (Version 1)

Atlantis Fanfiction-The Return

Lt. Colonel John Shepherd moved through the dense vegetation on a long range scout. The lead Atlantis team was currently on a planet the Ancients had lived on long ago, Litagara. The other members of his team were not far off, Ronan Dex, Teyla Emmagan and Dr. Rodney McKay.

"Hey, any one of you notice anything that would indicate recent activity?" Shepherd radioed to everyone.

"No, initial scans support the MALP's reading but according to Atlantis's database this planet was once a test site where the Ancients built and tested much of their technology," McKay replied.

"Yes, but that was 10,000 years ago. Perhaps when the ancestors left Atlantis they took everything with them," Teyla interjected.

"Yeah, maybe," Shepherd replied.

"We should go, there's nothing here that we can see," Ronon replied and Shepherd agreed. He ordered them to meet back up at the gate. He was on his way back when he heard rustling coming from all around him. He raised his weapon just as he was attacked by three Wraiths. Before he could react, he was knocked to the ground and he must have knocked his head on a rock because the last thing he saw was someone jumping down from the trees right into the middle of the Wraith.

The others heard the commotion over the radio. When they tried to reach Shepherd, he didn't answer. They then ran to his last known quadrants and when they got there, they were surprised to see two dead Wraiths and no sign of Shepherd.

Shepherd regained consciousness time and time again and as he opened his eyes, he saw what appeared to be a lab. He heard movement around him, but he lost consciousness again. When he awoke again, he was still groggy and he seemed to see a young woman about 20 years or older standing with her back to him. She turned around and looked at him; saw he was awake and walked up to him.

"Don't worry," she said softly, "you're going to be okay." He then lost consciousness again.

When the others returned to Atlantis and filled in Dr. Weir, she immediately mobilized more teams to commence a search. They searched for days with no luck and they were all worried about what was happening to him and praying he wasn't captured by the Wraith. The one thing that they all knew for a fact was that they were not giving up on him.

Shepherd finally fully regained consciousness. He got up and looked around to get a better look at where he was. He found himself in a room and he was surprised to notice that it looked a lot like the quarters on Atlantis. He got up and it took a few moments for him to steady himself. He knew he had to find out where he was, so he made his way out of the room. As he walked down a corridor right outside his room, he wasn't sure where to go. All of a sudden, lights in a row came on and it appeared to be pointing toward where he had to go. He didn't know what he was walking into but he had no other choice.

"Well, fortune favors the bold," he said silently to himself and then began to walk. He walked for a few minutes until he came to the end of the line of lights. He found himself in a room that was huge and filled with technology he was amazed by. He kept walking until he heard a voice coming from ahead. He walked slowly as to not be heard.

"Calibrate and analyze the system variances," the voice said and Shepherd noticed it was female.

"Scanning," the computer said. He moved slowly and just as he got there, he was stopped dead in his tracks.

"If I were you, I would stop right there, eight targeting systems have just locked on to you," she said and Shepherd stopped. He looked around but saw no weapons, although, he wouldn't take any chances.

"Okay, I stopped, don't blow me up, who are you?" he said and she laughed just before she turned around in her chair to face him.

"Come now, John Shepherd, you already know that answer, all you have to do is search your own mind for who I am." Shepherd didn't have to think long, seeing this place, how it looked and all the advanced technology he had seen. Due to those facts alone he was quite sure who she was.

"You're an Ancient," he said and she smiled a big grin.

Another team came back from Litagara with no luck, but they did have more bad news. Apparently, a Wraith hive ship was in orbit around the planet and there were Wraith on the surface by the dozens. Weir had no choice but to halt on sending any more teams to the planet just in case the Wraith stayed there for a lengthy period of time. Ronon and the others didn't like that at all. They wanted to go and they assured Weir that they could reach the planet by puddle jumper and go undetected, but Weir had to think about it. She was worried about Shepherd, however, because it seemed, due to the Wraith's increased presence on the planet it would seem to indicate they didn't have Shepherd. Although, what did worry her most was that if the Wraith didn't have him, who did?

Shepherd stood in stunned silence for a long time with her just looking at him.

"Well, are you going to say something or are you going to just stand there, and if so, I should get back to work," she replied and then Shepherd seemed to come to his senses.

"Sorry, it's just that, we didn't know that any Ancients were still alive, how are you still alive?" he asked.

"Well, apparently, fate had a different destiny in mind for me," she replied as she got up.

"You saved me from the Wraith?" he asked, as she walked past him.

"Yes, I was aware of you and the others when you came through the Stargate and I saw the Wraith come. They apparently came for all of you."

"Yeah, I'd say we've become a particular pain in their sides," Shepherd replied.

"Well, you are lucky I was there, that was an elite Wraith team, especially trained for specific missions."

"But you took them out?"

"Yes, well I had a lot of training . . . but that was a long time ago." Shepherd waited a long time before he spoke up again.

"Back to how you got here, how are you still alive after 10,000 years?" She looked at him and then motioned for him to follow her.

"Come with me," she said and Shepherd followed her. They walked through what seemed to be labs much like those in Atlantis.

"What's your name?" Shepherd asked as they walked.

"Inara Jininatani," she replied after a few moments. Later, they reached another lab and Inara walked in and up to what Shepherd recognized as a stasis pod like the one they found in Atlantis but this one was far more advanced. Inara walked up to it and ran her hand over it. She seemed very nostalgic as she did so.

"This is how I survived, this pod was my home for nearly 10,000 years," she said and Shepherd couldn't help but be surprised.

"I've seen a person in a stasis pod before but they were too old to survive for long, how did you survive in it for so long?"

"Well, a regular stasis pod is built for the short time if you could call it that, but this pod was specifically designed to keep someone alive indefinitely by releasing a special drug that stops the aging process literally freezing you in time," she explained.

"How did you get in there?" he asked and that was when a sad and hurt look crossed her face but it quickly vanished.

"It's complicated," she said and by the look on her face, he decided to leave it at that.

"How long have you been awake?" he asked.

"Nine years," she said.

"You know I come from Atlantis, we found it about three years ago and we have been living there since," Shepherd replied.

"I know," she said and he was once again taken back, "I have been aware of your presence on Atlantis since you arrived."

"If you knew, why didn't you try to contact us?"

"I wasn't sure about you and I knew that if I did, you would want me to come to Atlantis and I can't ever go back there."

"You used to live on Atlantis?" Shepherd asked.

"For a time, yes, but my parents and I moved here when the others were planning on leaving Atlantis and go back to Earth."

"Where is here exactly, how come the Wraith haven't found you?"

"This facility was built close to the planet's core and it utilizes the geothermal energy for almost all of the power systems but the major systems are powered by what you call Zero Point modules."

"How many of those do you have?" he asked.

"Just the one, I'm afraid."

"Well, what else do you have here, how have you been protected and undetected for so long?"

"Well, all over the surface, there are sensors detecting just about everything that goes on, on the planet," she replied, as she went to a control panel and pressed a few buttons. A display appeared, showing various images of across the planet. To Shepard's disdain, in many of the images there were Wraith. They appeared to be combing the entire planet.

"How long have they been there?" he asked.

"Since I rescued you, and this is the reason you can't leave yet, there's too many, but when they find nothing, they'll leave, they always do."

"Meaning?" Shepherd asked.

"The Wraith have made periodic visits to this planet often. They believed that if the Ancients were still around they would eventually come here, but this base is so close to the core that no scan can detect us."

"Is this how you plan on living your life, hiding?" Shepherd asked.

"You don't think I've been doing nothing, have you?"

"What have you been?" he asked.

"I'll show you," she said and he followed her to another lab, but this one was locked. When they entered, he saw why. Inside, there was a live Wraith in a stasis pod but it was unconscious. There were readouts saying its vitals next to the pod. The first urge he had was to move, but Inara assured him that the Wraith was completely comatose, so, no communication with the Hive. She said it was only there so she could take samples.

"Samples for what?" Shepherd asked.

"I'm working on a contagion that will attack the Iratus bug genetics in a Wraith, killing it."

"Wow . . . how long have you been working on it?"

"Well, I've been working on it since I woke up, but other Ancients have been working on it for years before the evacuation of Atlantis," she replied and Shepherd noticed a bit of an edge in her voice when she mentioned the Atlantis evacuation, "the major problem is the fact that the Iratus bug characteristics are so infused with the human genetics, that trying to target those specific genes is difficult. If I don't get it just right, the contagion could kill the multiple human populations as well."

"How close are you?" he asked.

"Not as close as I want to be," she replied.

"Well then, why don't you come back to Atlantis with me, not only could we perhaps help you, but there is so much that you could teach us." She seemed to think really hard and she had an off look of pain on her face.

"I'm sorry John, I just can't, it's too hard, there are just too many bad memories associated with it," she said and as she said that, Shepherd could see how painful it was for her.

"It's just that you could do so much more," Shepherd said and she looked at him with an odd expression on her face. Just then, a small alarm started to go off and it broke the stalemate between them.

"What is that?" he asked.

"It is informing us that the sensors on the surface have detected that there are no more Wraiths on or in orbit around the planet," she replied and they looked at each other.

Weir was thinking about what else could be done, when there was an unscheduled activation of the gate. Ronon and the others were with her and together they all went to the control room just in time to hear the gate controller say that they were getting Shepherd's personal IDC. Weir told him to let down the shield and she and the others went down to the gate just in time to see Shepherd walk through.

"Where have you been?" Weir asked and Shepherd took a deep breath before answering.

"That is going to take a lot of explaining," he replied and everyone took short glances at each other before they turned their attention back to Shepherd.

Over the next while, Shepherd explained everything about Inara and what he had learned. They all listened intently and they were shocked and surprised to learn that there was an actual Ancient alive after so many years.

"And she wouldn't come back to Atlantis with you?" Rodney asked.

"I could tell, as she said, it would be painful for her to be here," Shepherd replied.

"Perhaps we could go to her," Weir suggested and at that time, there was another unscheduled activation. When they all arrived, the shield went down and there was a series of malfunctions that occurred.

"What's happening?" Weir asked.

"I don't know, there appears to interference coming through the gate," the tech replied.

"Well, fix it, get that shield back up," Weir replied and McKay went to offer his assistance.

"Wait, look," Teyla replied and they all looked at the gate just in time to see someone come through. She was carrying some bags with her.

"Inara," Shepherd said and they all looked at him just as he started walking. They all followed him and stood on the top of the stairs and looked down at her. After a few moments, she spoke up.

"I heard you could use come help," she said, "I'm here to offer my assistance." As she said that, she was looking at them and Shepherd smiled a little.

Later, Shepherd met up with Inara as she was in the quarters that were given to her. She was unpacking as he walked in.

"Hi," she said as she saw him.

"Hey, how are you adjusting?" he asked.

"I'm taking it a few moments at a time," she replied and there were a few moments of silence.

"I came to ask you, what made you change your mind about coming here?" he asked. Inara then stopped packing and turned around, sitting on the edge of her bed and took a deep breath.

"You know what you said to me before you left, how I could do so much more, that was the last thing my father said to me before he died and I guess I finally heard him," she replied.

"Well, I'm glad you're here, as are the others," he said.

"Yeah, we'll see how it goes, but I do have some ground rules," she replied.

"What are those?" Shepherd asked.

"I will help you, but only to a point, don't think I'll solve all of your problems or give you everything I know, I'll help you protect this city from the Wraith along with other human populations but there are some things that you will have to find out on your own, that is the only way you'll learn."

"That sounds fair and I'll make sure everyone else knows, anything to get you to stay," Shepherd replied.

"I appreciate that," she said, smiling at him.

"Well, I appreciate you saving my life," he replied and then he got ready to leave.

"Anytime," she replied and he smiled and nodded at her before he left, leaving her looking around at her new surroundings wondering what the future had in mind for her now.


End file.
